19 December 2011

"WINGS" Build Part 2 W-I-P

Very quick update and poor photo.

Spent a little time over the weekend putting the MiG-27 together. Nice straight forward build - only problems I had was with the undercarriage flaps. Like most models the MiG is expected to be displayed with its landing gear down - not flying like I need it. Managed to stuff up the forward bay a lot - have not decided whether to leave it as is of simply fill it in with putty. Main undercarriage bays worked a little better - but still some gaps.

Anyway - here's my crappy photo - taken quickly with my ipad...

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Next stop - putty!

Have fun...

Richard

14 December 2011

The Guild "WINGS" Speed Build

A new speed build has been announced on The Guild and it is simply called "Wings". It comes to an end on
2nd January 2012 UK time.

I had some ideas of what to do - initially I was going to add some riot wings to my Humber Pig - which I thought was a pretty cool and unique idea - however I decided my limited scratch building skills were not up to it so I moved on.

I have at least 3 aircraft kits either built or built & undercoated which I could have used the build to finish off - but I think in the spirit of the speed build you are supposed to start from the beginning and finish off the entry - rather than start 1/2 way through. So none of them would do.

Have a look through the model pile I discovered a kind of forgotten about kit that perfectly fit the bill. Bought a while back from Hobbyco in Sydney for the princely sum of $12.95 how could I go wrong. And it fits perfectly with everything else I'm doing.

So here is my entry (thus far) - An Academy MiG-27 Flogger D:

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And just to prove it is completely unstarted:

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Everything is still in its bag - ready for making, hopefully this weekend.

If all goes well, I'll probably use all the same colours, technique etc to paint my built and undercoated Su-25 Frogfoot.

Warrior Update

More progress has been made on the 2 Revell Warriors.

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They are now basically ready for decals, and then the final weathering dry-brush. I have to decide whether to had the odd bit of crushed (and dried) oregano to the cam nets - cos they don't look quite how I expected them to turn out.

Anyway - should be finished real soon and then I'll take some proper photos.

Have fun...

Richard

27 November 2011

Cold War Hot Hot Hot Exclusive FoF Mission

As some of you may be aware I wrote a couple of the missions (scenarios) in the new Cold War Gone Hot book by Ambush Alley Games. A year or so early (when I had wriiten these scenarios) I also wrote another one that was to appear in the original version of the book.

Things changed (including a new version of Force on Force) and the third mission was dropped from the final, recently released, book. One of the reasons it was dropped was the sheer size of the mission. Once you have seen the mission, you'll know what I mean - but I also designed it to be playable - so I beleive it won't overwhelm the system.

Shawn (il supremo of AAG) has kindly given me the OK to put up on this blog the mission that didn't make it into the book.

So if you look over to your right you'll see a link to it under - "Useful Documents" - or you can link to it here

Would love to see someone give it a go.

Hope you enjoy my attempt to simulate attacking a VDV bridge-head.

Have fun...

Richard

23 November 2011

Next Step

Another real quick one. Whenever I get some free painting time in between comission work, I try to move my little Warrior project along. Last night I had enough time to give the two Warriors a quick black wash with Citadel Babab Black.

Here is the result:

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Should be able to take the next couple of steps this weekend - I hope...

have fun

Richard

21 November 2011

Experiment of the Day

Just a quick post today - more to follow soon.

This is probably nothing new to most of you - but it was the first time I've had a real crack at masking with blu-tack. My victims were a couple of Revell Warriors I had previously sprayed black.

Here they are masked up:

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I gave them a reasonably solid spray with FoW's War Paint - British Armour:

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Fingers crossed I carefully removed (and threw out) the blu-tack mask and hey presto:

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and...

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Not 100% but good enough to start work on properly and the method saved a ridiculous amount of time compared to me having to hand paint the cam scheme (like I do on 3 more Warriors...).

So - I'll definitely be doing that again!

Have fun...

Richard

17 November 2011

Cold War Gone Hot

Not exactly what I thought I'd be writing about this week - however it's come to my attention that some Amazon customers who pre-ordered "Cold War Gone Hot", a supplement for their Force-on-Force game system - have already recieved their copies of the book - which isn't due out until 22 November.

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Lucky, lucky buggers is all I can say. Looking forward to getting a copy of this myself.

The last copy of this I have seen was a proof before it was sent off to Osprey. Reason I got to see the proof was because I wrote two of the scenarios in the book, and helped out a little in other areas as well.

So when you get it, have a look for a Spetsnaz mission where they try and take out a Harrier jump jet hide, and an SAS mission where they try and take out a Soviet HQ. Very interested to hear what people think of the scenarios and especially to see any After Action Reports.

I had another scenario that didn't make the book (too big) which I'd still like to try out.

There should be a broad range of other scenarios in there as well - not just special forces raiding type missions and assuming it hasn't changed much from the last time I saw it AAG have tackled the subject in a very interesting way. It is also packed full of useful info - especialy the stuff on unit TO&Es - that will be good for any Cold War gaming.

So go out and buy it now - and let me know what you think

Have fun...

Richard

10 November 2011

BAOR Late 1980s Stocktake

Continuing with my stocktake theme… this week I tried and work out exactly what I'm missing to complete my late 1980's BAOR force. This force is meant to represent a 1-for-1 reduced armoured infantry company plus some attached Battalion assets.

This force and the other BAOR force are about as large (once they are finished) as I can imagine you could reasonably play in a wargame – especially once you start adding things like recon units or armoured units.

As I understand it, most British Army units were chronically short of their established sizes – and after some limited combat a reduced company is possibly a more realistic representation to play with.

Also, these units would allow me to form a kind of infantry heavy company team, by adding in a platoon of tanks. Or by using 1 platoon of armoured/mechanised infantry I could form a tank heavy company team. Kind of a British version of “Team Yankee”.

This appears to be reasonably doctrinal, at least for the earlier 1980s.

Anyway – on with the show. Here is what I am currently able to field:

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Here is the company + additional assets broken down a little diagrammatically (in my own repeatedly amateurish manner).

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The Guide
(Things missing are in bold)

Blue - Company CO, Radio Operator, Company Sergeant - should perhaps have more - need to investigate that further – Command Warrior (I have the Warrior – but am waiting to get the Kingfisher Miniatures command conversion set before making them)

Light Yellow - Company 2IC, Radio Operator, Sergeant (?) - not sure about this one - need to investigate that further – Command warrior (as above)

Khaki – on left hand side – sniper section

Light Green – odd shaped box on right – 2 x GPMG Sustained Fire Team

Yellow - 1st Platoon (from Left to Right)
Platoon Leader, RTO, Platoon Sergeant, Light Mortar, Medic
3 Sections
Fireteam A - Section Leader, LSW Gunner, Rifleman, Rifleman
Fireteam B - Section 2IC, LSW Gunner, Rifleman, Rifleman
4 x Warrior

Red - 2nd Platoon (from Right to Left)
Platoon Leader, RTO, Platoon Sergeant, Light Mortar, Medic
3 Sections
Fireteam A - Section Leader, LSW Gunner, Rifleman, Rifleman
Fireteam B - Section 2IC, LSW Gunner, Rifleman, Rifleman
4 x Warrior

Bright Blue - ATGM Section
2 Milan Teams
Platoon Leader, RTO, Platoon Sergeant, 2 Milan Teams, 2 Spartan MCT

Bright Green - Mortar Battery
2 FV432M with mortar teams, Spartan, Sultan (not shown)

White - Artillery
105mm light gun + crew, tractor (not shown).
105mm light gun + crew

2 x Abbot

So that's it for the stocktake. I now have a better idea of what's missing and what I need to pursue to finish off this unit. I still have a couple of things to work out here as well – like how do Javelin Teams (the Blowpipe replacement) fit in here…

Next week – what I painted for my wife’s birthday.

Have fun...

Richard

01 November 2011

BAOR mid 1980's Stocktake

Well October was officially "No Blog Month" - my first month without an update. But I had a reasonable excuse - a holiday in New Zealand during the Rugby World Cup. Didn't get to any of the games - wrong part of the country - but did enjoy soaking up the experience. And have found the perfect retirement destination.

I'm not sure how much or how regularly I'll be getting updates up for the next little while either with real life and other competing events getting in the way of getting much done - and no one wants to read a blog of just waffle... so, we'll see what I can do.

Enough excuse making. I've needed to do a decent stocktake for a while now and find out exactly what I'm missing to complete my mid 1980's BAOR force. This force represents (in my imagination anyway) a 1-for-1 reduced mechanised company plus some attached Battalion assets.

Here is what I am currently able to field:

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Here is the company + additional assets broken down a little diagramatically (and kind of amateurish manner as well!)

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The Guide
(Things missing are in bold)

Green - Company CO, Radio Operator, Company Sergeant - should perhaps have more - need to investigate that further - FV432

Blue - Company 2IC, Radio Operator, Sergeant (?) - not sure about this one - need to investigate that further - FV432

Not sure about what other assets the Company HQ might be able to bring to the party - like a sniper section...

Purple - GPMG Sustained Fire Team - possibly party of the Company HQ - 2nd GPMG Sustained Fire Team

Yellow - 1st Platoon (from Right to Left)
Platoon Leader, RTO, Platoon Sergeant, Light Mortar, Medic
3 Sections
Fireteam A - Section Leader, MAW Gunner, Assistant Gunner, Rifleman
Fireteam B - Section 2IC, GPMG Gunner, Assistant Gunner, Rifleman
4 x FV432
2 FV432, 1 x MAW Gunner

Red - 2nd Platoon (from Left to Right)
Platoon Leader, RTO, Platoon Sergeant, Light Mortar, Medic
3 Sections
Fireteam A - Section Leader, MAW Gunner, Assistant Gunner, Rifleman
Fireteam B - Section 2IC, GPMG Gunner, Assistant Gunner, Rifleman
4 x FV432

White - ATGM Section
So far just the 1 Milan Team
Platoon Leader, RTO, Platoon Sergeant, 3 Milan Teams, 3 FV432, 2 Spartan MCT

Orange Brown - Mortar Battery
2 FV432M with mortar teams, Sultan & Spartan (not shown)

Light Blue - ADA Section
2 Blowpipe Teams - need to do further reseacrh on how these would have been transported, did they have command element etc.

Grey - Artillery
105mm light gun + crew, tractor (not shown).
105mm light gun + crew

2 x Abbot
2 x GPMG Turreted FV432 (for use as Platoon Leader vehicles - just to tell them apart)


So that's it for the stocktake. I now have a better idea of what's missing and what I need to pursue to finish off this unit. Fortunately, possession of a large number of FV432s will also help me with my next unit - but more on that next week

Have fun...

Richard

28 September 2011

KGN Vehicle Cards

As I mentioned previously I've created Vehicle Cards covering all the vehicles used in KAMPFGRUPPE - Normandy. You can find links to them on the right hand side of the blog.

All the images I used so far come from this excellent website WW2 Drawings – and I hope he doesn’t mind my using the pics – which I am doing without permission but I in no way wish to breach his copyright or take any credit for his excellent pictures.

I'm also not trying to infringe on GW's copyright - simply to make something useful to KGN players.

Here are some samples:

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The idea is that once you have an army list, you print or copy a card for each vehicle in your force. So if you have 4 Shermans - your use 4 cards in the game. Each card has space for you to write an ID of the vehicle - so you can tell your 4 Shermans apart.

Apart from all the useful info taken from the vehicle data in the book - there is also an Ammo counter on the card. The first row is clear - indicating this is the number of rounds you start with in the game. If your vehicle can take HE and AP rounds, you can write your chosen load out in each of the boxes. Once you've shot off that row of ammo - you need to go find a re-supply truck to reload.

Pretty simple really.

Anyway - hope you enjoy and find them useful.

Richard

26 September 2011

KGN - My first AB figures

Just a quick post today. A few weeks back I painted my first 20mm AB Figures - which I have to say are the gold standard in WW2 figures as far as I'm concerned.

Basically all I've done are two complete sections plus a walking PIAT team and 2" Mortar team.

The photos look a bit dark on my PC - but here they are:

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Front view 1/2 section
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Front view the other 1/2 section

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From behind

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PIAT & 2" Mortar teams

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Kneeling 1/2 section

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Lying down 1/2 section
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Different Angle

And that's it. Thanks for looking

Richard

25 September 2011

KAMPFGRUPPE – Normandy – My Review

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Warhammer Historical has recently come out with a new rulebook called Kampfgruppe – Normandy (KGN), by Warwick Kinrade. When I first heard rumour of this a while back my interest was piqued for some reason – mainly I guess because the rumour identified that the rules were aimed at 20mm.

At the time my WW2 miniature collection was 99.9% 15mm and I was quite happy with Battlefront’s Flames of War – but my modern’s collection was 100% 20mm and I was looking for a ruleset with which to replicate larger modern battles than I felt Force on Force could deal with.

Cold War Commander never quite clicked with me, and nor did FFT2, and I’ve never played Rapid Fire so the modern add-on to that was not really an option either. My larger Cold War have been played using a variant of Flames of War – which whilst handy – didn’t quite do it for me.

Anyway – so when KGN came out I immediately started to investigate it and look out for reviews – not that there were really any to find. Eventually Piers from The Guild did a review and he was very impressed – and as I respect his opinion I thought it could have legs. I downloaded the Rules Primer and some info on the 21st Panzer Division to get a better handle on the rules and then eventually went and bought it.

BTW the Guild now has a whole section on KGN that is worth looking at.

One thing that has bothered some people is the price tag – to get it to me in Oz basically cost me $80AUD which is more than a little hefty. I look at it this way. I own a bucket load of games and rulebooks. Most I paid top dollar for, most I have never played, and sadly most I will never play. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the experience of purchasing them, reading them etc. Did I get my monies worth – probably not… So, what I’m saying is, if I can get even a few games in with KGN – then despite paying $80 for it – I’ll have got more value for money from it than the majority of my other unplayed games – that’s my thinking anyway.

Value for Money

So – what do you get for your money. You get a book heavy enough to bludgeon someone to death with! 350 odd pages… but it is a really beautiful book – full of excellent colour photography of someone’s fantastic 20mm collections and so terrific original black & white photos from the period – most I had already seen elsewhere, but the odd one or two that were new to me.

Of the massive book, after a few intro pages – which must be read as they do have snippets of rules in them – you get about 54 pages of rules, history sections on the British and American sectors post D-Day, equipment data and background info for the Germans, British and Americans, 9 army lists, 2 linked campaigns (one for each sector) and 20 scenarios. That’s pretty damn good in my view.

Not what of the rules…

Well first up I have to say – very easy to read and straight forward. They are not some variant of 40K (like the Warhammer Historical WW1 game), WHFB or the Lord of the Rings system, but a completely new ruleset.

It is an IGOUGO system, but does have the capacity for overwatch (or covering fire as the rules call it) where you can interrupt your opponents turn.

I like the Command and Control system, where each turn you generate command points which allow you to activate units – but typically not enough for every unit you have to do exactly what they want. Once activated a unit can perform 2 actions – the choices of which are fairly standard.

Shooting is interesting as this set of rules allows you 2 different types of shooting – suppressing fire and direct fire. If you know some Jerries are in that grove of trees and want them to keep their heads down, your section decide to simply fire everything its got into the grove, hoping to suppress the enemy. Artillery, HE tank shells etc are also covered by suppressing fire.

Otherwise you could decide to try and observe the Jerries and take them under direct fire. This simply means your section is going to fire less, but more accurately and try and kill the enemy rather than simply suppress him. Its harder to do, but the results are more permanent. This is also how you fire AT guns at tanks etc.

There is a great mechanism for morale. Each unit in your force has a morale value ranging from 0 up to 8 or so for a full platoon. You add these all together and this gives you your battlegroup morale. As events happen in the game you draw chits from a morale pot – which are numbered from 1 to 4 and take these away from your battlegroup morale. Once you get to 0, your force has had enough and is forced to withdraw.

If you want to get some of your suppressed units back into the game (rather than hugging the dirt) you need to draw a chit from the morale pot. I like this very much.

So far we’ve played two games (at once – call me crazy) which I refereed and it all seemed to work fairly well. Would have been good if the other players had read the rules or at least the rules primer – but hey – it was all good fun and I’ll post up some AARs later in the week.

To help out with the game I created some Vehicle Cards for the players. Folks on the Guild seemed to think they were pretty good so I have now finished cards for all the British and German vehicles in the game. (You can find them on the right hand side of my blog. I’m working on the Yanks and should have them up in the next couple of days. All the images I used so far come from this excellent website WW2 Drawings – and I hope he doesn’t mind my using the pics – which I am doing without permission but I in no way wish to breach his copyright or take any credit for his excellent pictures.

So – finally - does it look transferable to a Cold War setting. Definitely yes! Working on that now…

Have fun

Richard

19 September 2011

MERDC Madness

Well September was going to be all about World war Two on this blog, but before I launched into that I just wanted to post up this pic and see if I can get any comments/opinions from you all as to which colours you thing best represent the MERDC camouflage scheme as used by the US Army in Europe in the early 1980s.

I've been struggling with this and have finally come up with what I think is a reasonable base colour - Tamiya Dark Green. I did want to use Vallejo US Dark Green but my lack of access to vallejo colours right now has stiffled that option.

I airbruushed the Tamiya colour yesterday onto my M106s, M901s and M1s and think it looks prety decent. So I created this little template on a piece of paper and last night painted on a variety of greens I have for the second colour. So here it is:

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So far all I have really been able to do is to rule out the top three. Its going to have to be on of the bottom three but I really have no idea as to which...

This is to look like this (MERDC Winter Verdant):

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Or Should I just skip the green and go to this (MERDC Summer Verdant):

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As you can see I'm still confused - but need to make a decision soon as the Group Build ends on 2 Oct...

Any help greatly appreciated

Richard

16 August 2011

Soviet 120mm Mortar Teams

This week I've added a couple of 120mm Mortar teams to my Soviets.

As I understand it, the Soviets developed an excellent 120mm mortar just prior to WWII. It was such a good design that the Germans simply copied it. Since then it has been improved at least a couple of times, but the basic design remains the same. You can read a very brief description of this development process here and here and finally here. I'm going to "pretend" that my mortars are more likely to be the PM-43 variety rather than the 2B11 Sani developed in 1981, as I doubt all units would have them within the timeframe I'm dealing with and because the model I used is a WWII variant.

So...

For these teams I used Liberation VDV and Cam Jump Suit figures for the mortar crews. I found someWartime Miniatures 120mm mortars at Cancon earlier in the year (like January!) and thought they would look pretty good together. They are based on large GW round bases - 60mm I think... Here they are:

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I'm basically happy with the result - but I tried something different with the basing and I'm not happy with that result. I won't be using static grass and Silfor tufts together again. I also don't have any 120mm mortar bombs or appropriate sized boxes which could have made the bases that much better...

Onto a couple of youtube clips:

This first clip is from WWII but as it is about a german copy of the Soviet 120mm mortar I thought it worth having here. It gives you a good idea of the size etc.


This is a clip about a modern US Marine's 120mm mortar - gives you a good sense of the size of the rounds in particular


That's all for now

have fun

Richard

04 August 2011

M106 W-I-P and S&S Group Build

A while back (March actually) I posted an update about the S&S Models +15 Club - you can read it here if you are so inclined.

In the post I put forward my keeness for an American M106 Mortar Carrier and for the similar West German variant.

In an impressive display of responsiveness two S&S M106s arrived in the post on Monday. I spent the last couple of nights cleaning and assembling and now mine looks like this:

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Yeah - I know - crappy photos, but the best I could do at short notice!

These wil be my entry into The Guild's next Group Build which is sponsored by S&S Models

I might make a little diorama - but from the little research I've done I think in reality that these vehicles would have deplyed about 200 metres apart when firing - so a diorama might look kind of sad with the tow in action right next to each other.

Next I have to decide how to paint them... I find US Armour cam colours in the 1980's a fairly confusing topic.

It appears that in 1970s the US Army came up with a camo scheme names MERDC. Here is an excellent photo of one version of it borrowed from the Plastic Warriors blog. An excellent and inspirational blog it is too - so I hope they don't mind me using this picture :-)

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That looks truly difficult to paint and I'm not sure if I can be bothered - however as an end result - it's pretty cool.

In Europe though - it gets even more confusing becasue as I understand in the early 1980's all M1s and M2/3s arrived looking like this:

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This picture is borrowed from another exceptional website called Armoured Acorn. This site has fantastic pics of a range of Canadian, NATO and even WARPAC AFVs - as well as a whole heap of other stuff like Soviet TO&Es so is well worth looking at.

Anyway later in the 80's a M113 might have looked like this:

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From the same site as above. This was meant to be the standard NATO 3-tone camo. Fortunately this is a little to late in the 80's for what I'm trying to do so I can safely ignore this one.

Amusingly enough, in action I'm sure they all actually looked like this:

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Photo from the armorama website. That's supposedly a MERDC cammed M1 - pretty hard to tell.

So... perhaps I need to paint my M1s and M2/3s in Forest Green (I'll be using FoW War Paint US Armour), and my M113s, M901s and M106s in MERDC? I've no idea!

That's all for now - have fun

Richard

19 July 2011

Soviet 9K111 Fagot Teams

Another short but hopefully sweet update this week.

Over on the The Guild they recently had a groupbuild, with the omly criteria being that whatever it was you did had to be on a 40mm base. This fit in quite well with a couple of Soviet 9K111 Fagot (NATO Designation: AT-4 Spigot) teams I had wanted to finish.

You can find out more about the Fagot/Spigot here

The Models

My teams came from Liberation Miniatures, which includes the firer and loader (one of which I swapped around for a more observer type figure) also include the base of the launcher attached to a kind of rocky outcrop. It looks kind of weird, but makes the missile launcher unit much more stable than it would be without it.

I didn't have any LibMin Fagots handy, but when I got my last S&S Models order I had asked for a number of these missile units to attach to my BMP-1s and BMD-1/2s. I decided to use them, and they fitted in very well with the LibMin figures.

The Look

This is the look I was going for:

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And this is what I ended up with:

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I think they came out OK. I'm not happy with how the Woodlands Scenics turf turned out - I have to work on that...

Anyway... here's a couple of Fagot/Spigot youtube clips:







I found it interestingt he way the tube pops open before the missile launches.

Have fun

Richard

11 July 2011

Cromwell Models FV105 Sultan

A fairly quick update this week with my version of a Sultan. A member of the very cool CVR(T) family every modern British force - in real life or in miniature - needs at least one. You can find out a little more about the Sultan here and alot more about the whole CVR(T) family here.

REVIEW

I'm a little bit of a fan of Cromwell Models - apart from the difficulty you can have in getting them - and this little beauty sits right up there with the rest of their stuff that I have seen. Its a very simple little kit - just 3 pieces from memory - the body and two sets of tracks.

My only problem was that the tracks had a quite significant bow in them and needed to be bent back into shape. Not having much experience in this I probably tried to do it too speedily and ended up snapping one of the track sections in half. This did, however largely solve the bow whn both peices were glued seperately to the hull.

Apart from that it was all very straight forward and painted up extremely easily. I liked it so much I'm trying to work out if I need another one!

Here are some photos of the completed effort:

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Front angle

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Side shot

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Rear view

Finally a couple of clips from youtube:


Good quality clip with nice look at details


View from the Commander's hatch


Convoy - including 4 Sultan's

That's all for now

have fun

Richard

29 June 2011

Britannia FV4201 Chieftain Tank

This weeks update is solely about 1 model - my only Britannia Chieftain Tank. I have 4 more Chieftains - 2 Airfix ones, built and painted by somone else long ago, bought recently by me off Leigh. I also have 2 from the Tank Collection Magazine - but I have to say that the one I am most proud of is this Britannia model.

BTW - Britannia has been recently reopened by Andy Grubb. You can find the new Britannia website here I'm not sure how much Cold War kit is actually available yet - but this will be the best place to get your Britannia needs from.

For more on the Chieftain Tank you might want to look here for a start.

Review

I think the Chieftain is the nicest Britannia model I have dealt with so far. I don't believe there were any particularly big air bubbles in the resin, and I used greenstuff to fix up any small ones I did find. My only issue was that the commander's MG was a bit deformed so I simply left it off the finished model.

Putting it up against the Airfix Chieftains - it is exactly the same size - and against the Tank Collection Chieftains it is a little smaller - which at a guess means it is a 1/76th scale model rather than 1/72 - but that's just my guess.

It comes with a very nice metal barrel and commander figures. It has the commander's hatch molded open and the driver's hatch molded closed.

All-in-all I really rate this model and would be happy to suggest it to anyone.

Painting

I painted this the exact same way as the FV432s in the previous post. Only difference was I used Vallejo Khaki and a Citadel Devlan Mud was on the sections of the barrel covered in the shroud.

So here is the finished product:

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As you can see - pretty straight forward stuff.

A few cool youtube clips







Finally a reminder - if you want to see an excellent TV doco on tanks with loads of fantastic shots of BAOR Chieftains in action look no further than here an old post of mine showing "Soldiers - A History of Men in Battle - Tanks". Well worth watching.

Have fun

Richard

22 June 2011

BAOR Britannia FV432 APC

Back to normal now...

So in the lead up to last weeks game, I came close to completing a bunch of BAOR vehicles. These have now been finished and first up I'd like to go with the Britannia FV432 Armoured Personnel Carriers.

Here's some info from wikipedia on the FV432

Review

The Britannia FV432 is a very nice little model. It is a solid resin kit, with some metal peices, like a command figure, and hatch covers. You can make it, with the commander's hatch open or closed - which is something I like. You can get a couple of variants - the base APC and a FV432 with an open rear hatch. This can come with either 2 infantry men who are "standing" in the open hatch, a 81mm mortar and 2 crew, or a wombat recoilless rifle and 2 crew. All these figures are half figures and are very nicely styled and molded.

On the negative side, it does come with some air holes - which I didn't pay to much attention to on these vehicles - which I now regret - but these can be easily fixed. The other negative I have is that the driver's hatch is molded open with the driver's neck and head sticking out. I know I bang on about this all the time.... yawn.... but I would much prefer this to be optional. It's just me... Having said that - the driver is a nice little representation anyway.

Painting

These have been painted in what has become my British Army standard:

1. Undercoat - Citadel Chaos Black Spray
2. Base Coat - FoW War paint - British Armour
3. Squiggly Black Lines - Citadel Chaos Black
4. Black Wash - Citadel Babab Black - pretty liberally splashed on...
5. Drybrush - Vallejo Russian Uniform (Just the Green areas)
6. Drybrush - Vallejo Russian Uniform & Vallejo Khaki - adding more and more Khaki - eventually going over the black areas as well.
7. Paint the tracks the standard way I do...
8. Drybrush Vallejo Flat Earth or something similar over the tracks and lower parts of the AFV to represent dirt.
9. Paint lights etc.

All done

No decals at this point as I don't really own any good enough to suit. Eventually I'll try and get some from B W Models

Lastly - I had a not particularly cunning plan... I decided to make little bases - I'll call them sabots (coz it sounds cooler) to fit into the open topped FV432 so I could make them multi-use. I think they cam out quite well.

Onto the pictures:

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Front view - all the painted FV432s

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Rear view

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Side shot of a bog standard FV432

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Top view of another FV432

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Front angled shot of yet another FV432

Now onto the open topped one

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This are the sabot bases

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Front view with infantry

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Side view with infantry

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Rear view with mortar

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Rear view with the other mortar (I actually made this mortar and was pretty chuffed with how it came out)

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Side view with mortar

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Side view with other mortar

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Side view with wombat

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Slightly different side view with wombat.

Obviously all this finally umpteen pics are of exactly the same open topped FV432. I have 2 other unpainted open topped FV432 to do and another standard APC variant to paint.

Now a couple of youtube clips to keep you entertained


The obligatory car crushing clip


More like my colour scheme


Demo


A detailed look

That's all for now - have fun

Richard